Due to a very fortunate set of hand-my-down dominoes and corporate device upgrades, I find myself in possession of an M1 Max MacBook Pro. I’m going to use it to replace my Intel i5 MacBook Pro home server.
Currently, I use my server machine to run Time Machine backups and stream an incredibly modest Plex library to my Apple TV.
I know, at the very least, I am going to set up a local Ollama server for some personal AI. Early tests have blown me away on the speed (not yet accounting for network latency).
We don’t have smart devices, so I don’t need Home Assistant. And we use NextDNS + Private Relay, so I don’t think we need to route our traffic through PiHole.
And we’re happy with iCloud storage for Photos and Files, so I don’t think we have deeper NAS needs.
Besides that - what are some fun projects you host on your home network? And ideas for what I can toy around with, or projects I should avoid?
One of the most fun decisions I made was to host Channels DVR on my Mac Mini. I have set up a variety of sources to get different channels going out to my Apple TVs and iOS devices, including traditional TV channels a few different ways, some webcams, YouTube live streams, etc, And I also host a movie library like you do with Plex (I have Plex pointed to the same content, but find I access it with Channels much more often).
And they now have “Mulltiview” in beta. This past weekend I had four sporting events of my choosing going at once on screen. (Image below is from just now, though)
I toyed around with Umbrel for a bit. It’s still technically setup on my wife’s old ~2013 MBP, but that seems to be on the fritz so it doesn’t keep umbrel running 24/7.
But it is a very nice “Apple-like” way to dip into self-hosting. I’m aware it’s similar to CasaOS, but Umbrel is even more geared towards noobs and first timers in this field.
There was a support article on running it on a mac, I believe it needed to run on Linux, so there was a whole virtualization process, it might be better now. And I believe Umbrel was orignially targeted at crypto miners so you’ll see a lot of apps for that purpose, but they’ve come a long way just this year I believe, they have a dedicated file system like a NAS basically, so there’s that.
I have the many Arr stack apps for managing films and TV shows and Calibre for managing ebooks. I use Plex + Prologue (the iOS app) for audiobooks but was planning to try Audiobookshelf at some point.
I have Homebridge, which is simpler than Home Assistant, and just lets non-HomeKit devices show up in the Home App. Great for letting you buy cheap smartbulbs and still be able to use them like normal.
I use it to serve my StrongBox vault. Just uses SFTP, dead simple, but makes backing up a doddle.
I run Paperless-NGX for long term document storage.
I also use it as an exit node for my Tailscale network. Tailscale is amazing, makes life so much easier when self-hosting.
I’m on Debian but I believe this is all also on Mac.
My home server is a last gen Intel Mac Mini with something like 50TB JBOD storage in an external 4 drive bay. It does the following:
Acts as TimeMachine server for the rest of my devices.
Holds an archive of anything that I want to keep.
Since I now work most of the time on the other coast, it serves as a TailScale exit node so that my streaming services won’t start trying to charge me for a second household.
It backs everything up to a clone drive in the enclosure.
It backs everything up to Backblaze.
It syncs with my iCloud Drive, which means that anything that I do in iCloud drive anywhere else is protected by the backup system automatically
Check out lubelogger to keep auto details (gas fillups all the way to maintenance records).
Scrypted NVR (do not need to pay, just the free version). It allows you to take any of your home security IP cameras and “turn them” into HomeKit compatible cameras. This allows you to use HomeKit app to view videos (and do automations, have it pop up on corner of Apple TV, etc).
I use folder sharing (the default one built into MacOS) to share to my AppleTV, and I use Infuse as the media player. For me, this is much better performing than using a Plex server and it has better audio support, so I can now stream proper Atmos that my home theatre recognizes (I never got this working in Plex properly). The Infuse interface is also light years ahead of Plex so I am very happy.
The only downside is that it cannot be used externally, but I never used Plex outside my home so this isn’t an issue for me.
Consider using the plex server as backend and infuse on Apple TV. Infuse now supports using the plex metadata (so you don’t run into the issue with Apple TV cache/repulling dat on infuse). Also if you prefer your own covers etc they persist. It’s best of both worlds.
Consider using the plex server as backend and infuse on Apple TV
I honestly don’t have any need. I don’t use custom covers, and would prefer one less software service running on my machine. If I wanted to make my movies available externally and share my movies I would do this but I don’t have this need, and I have no issues at all with folder sharing (when I add a new file it appears immediately, and that’s my biggest requirement!)
